Groups Appeal GOP-Backed Fla. Congressional Maps, OK 2014 Vote

A coalition of voters rights organizations that successfully sued Florida over gerrymandering is appealing the state's newly redrawn congressional district maps, though it will not protest use of the new boundaries in the November elections, according to court filings on Friday.

Instead, the coalition asked the Second District Court of Appeal to bump the case to the Florida Supreme Court, so it can be settled by the 2016 elections.

Last week, Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis approved the changes made to Florida's congressional maps in a hastily convened special legislative session earlier in August.

The maps were redrawn after Lewis ruled in July that Republican leaders had conspired to rig the boundaries to protect the party's majority in Washington. Their 2012 maps "made a mockery" of anti-gerrymandering provisions in the state's constitution, he said.

Lewis invalidated two of the state's 27 congressional districts. He found that lawmakers had packed black voters into an oddly shaped district extending from Jacksonville to Orlando to benefit Democrat Corrine Brown of Jacksonville, and crafted a white and conservative district for Daniel Webster, an Orlando-area Republican.